Microsoft’s Ballmer: Read My Lips — No Bid For Yahoo

In case you didn’t believe him the first 20 times, Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) CEO Steve Ballmer repeated today at the company’s annual shareholders’ meeting that he has no intention of making another offer for Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO). Ballmer’s words, reported by MarketWatch: “Let me be as clear as I think I’ve tried to be publicly: We are done with all acquisition discussions with Yahoo. We have moved on.”

Ballmer also repeated that a potential search deal could be “an interesting opportunity.” Not clear whether he means acquiring Yahoo’s search business, as he tried to do after the full-monty bid failed, or some other arrangement. Meanwhile, Yahoo’s stock price, boosted by the notion that Jerry Yang’s departure as CEO signaled a Ballmer reversal, is coming back down, dropping more than 17 percent to $9.57 as I type.